Detailed information
Dimensions
80 x 88 x 49
mm
Weight
325 g
Locality
Orange River Warmbad, Karasburg District Karas Region, Namibia
Condition
No recorded repairs
The Orange River, which forms the border between South Africa and Namibia has produced a wide variety of Fluorite crystal forms and colours, and unusual combinations with other minerals too, but typically provenance to specific sites is poor and that goes for this specimen too. Its appearance suggests that it may have come from a find made during the late 1990s. It comes from Arvid Pasto's famous worldwide Fluorite collection (no. AEP 1267) and shows exceptional crystallographic form even if its green colour is a little pale. The large complex cubo-octahedral crystals sit upon a bed of milky coloured prismatic Quartz crystals and the individual faces of the Fluorite range from perfectly smooth, to gently crazed from an overgrowth of tiny Quartz crystals in a thin layer. The largest Fluorite crystal reaches over 5 cm across and all are in excellent condition making for an exceptional display specimen. Illustrated as figure 28 on page 19 in Pasto's 2009 book, Collector's Guide to Fluorite.
